The Tour of the Mongoose (also known as El Tour de la Mangosta in Spanish-speaking regions) was the third concert tour by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, launched in support of her fifth studio album—and debut English-language record— Laundry Service (2001). It was her first global tour, visiting North and South America and Europe.
Background
Clear Channel Entertainment announced the Tour of the Mongoose in September 2002.[1] The tour came shortly after Shakira reached international success with her third studio album. During a press conference in New York City, Shakira summarized her show as an "entertaining rock show", stating, "I'm not saving any effort to make sure that this concert [tour] will be the best I can offer to my fans. And it's going to have a strong spirit of rock and roll, so you will see a rock-and-roll show, but it will have all of the nuances and the subtleties of a show that attempts to entertain".[2]
At the same press conference, Shakira explained the tour's name as symbolizing the strength of the mongoose, stating "...I was really impressed by it because it is an animal that can defeat the snake with just a bite. It's like a living miracle, this animal, to me, because if there's an animal on earth that can defeat the snake—a venomous viper—with a bite, I think that there's got to be some way for us to defeat, or to bite the neck of hatred in this world, no? "It's called the Tour of the Mongoose, and the mongoose is basically one of the few animals who can defeat the most venomous snakes with just one bite and that's why I decided to name my tour that way, because I think that if we all have a little mongoose inside that can defeat the hatred and the resentment and the prejudice of everyday, we can probably win the battle."[2][3] At the tour commencement, Corey Moss of MTV compared the singer to Britney Spears, Tommy Lee, Elvis Presley, Sheryl Crow and Rage Against the Machine.[4]
The show sparked some controversy due to a perceived anti-war message in a video played prior to the performance of "Octavo Día", displaying war footage and later revealing the Grim Reaper to be a puppeteer. Shakira defended the video, stating,[3]
"I think that we see war as a virtual thing and we even get to believe that bombs fall on top of cardboard cutouts and stuff like that, they don't. They kill real people, real children, real mothers and millions of innocent people. I come from Colombia, which is a country that has been under the whip of violence for more than four decades, so I've seen the consequences of war and I've seen the psychological damage that it does in a society.
And I think that we're never ready for war. I just feel that there are always pacifist solutions, and I think that the leaders know the exit to the conflict, it's just that sometimes they don't want to use them, they just want to continue playing their little game of power. And I feel that us people have the responsibility and also the obligation to demand to our leaders to give us the pacifist solutions. To give us a world in peace. I might be sounding like an old fashioned hippie, but I believe in pacifist revolutions and I think that we have to look for those solutions, otherwise there's no way to survive in this world. In the First World War, 13 million people were killed. In the Second World War, 40 million people were killed. I think that if a third war takes place, nothing is going to be left on the face of earth. 'Octavo Dia' talks about God when he created the world, the eighth day he went for a walk to outer space and when he came back he found our world in an infernal mess and he found that we were being controlled and manipulated by just a few leaders and that we were like pieces of a chess game. Not always do the governments represent their people. Not always do the governments make the right decisions, because the governments are controlled by just a few, and those few do not always represent faithfully the ideals of the people."
Commercial performance
Shakira became the first Latin female artist to perform at Argentina's Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti (River Plate stadium), the sold-out show had over 60,000 people in attendance.[5] The concert in Santiago, Chile broke Luis Miguel's record of most expensive concert tickets in the country due to Shakira's huge global popularity and high demand.[6] The show in Atlantic Pavilion, Lisbon has attracted 19,136 people which has broken attendance record holding by American rock trio R.E.M.[7]
The tour was shot in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on April 22, 2003. The tour was chronicled on Live & off the Record. The disc included selected songs from the concert, along with a documentary showing the performer preparing for the show, her song writing process and her ideas about social responsibility. It also includes a live CD that features ten songs that were performed during the show. The CD spun off two singles, "Poem to a Horse" and "Whenever, Wherever Live".[8] In a special edition of Fijación Oral, Volume 1 the performances of "Fool" and "Dónde Están los Ladrones?" were included.
